1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to simulated weapons. The use of holographic images and accompanying sound effects allows the invention to replicate the overall effects associated with a variety of simulated weapons. The invention is particularly suited for use as a simulated weapon intended to resemble a laser-type gun, ray gun, or space gun weapon such as portrayed in motion pictures, television programs, and video games.
2. Description of Prior Art
Simulated weapons which employ visual effects, particularly those using vivid lighting, are well known. Devices which replicate conventional firearms have used flashing lights, often in conjunction with other effect to suggest muzzle flashes. Machine gun-type simulated weapons from the 1950s used flashing red lights together with a reciprocating plastic cylinder to imitate muzzle flashes. That visual effect involved both electric lighting and the extension into space of a physical object. Through its very rapid in-and-out motion, the plastic cylinder was intended to lose the appearance of a physical object.
Other simulated weapons have sought to rely on lighting effects alone to create the impression of muzzle flashes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,283,970 to Aiger discloses a toy gun which relies entirely on a red light, which shows intermittently as the invention's barrel assembly rotates, to provide the impression of muzzle flashes.
While the previous examples have been of toys which resembled actual weapons (conventional firearms), space gun or ray gun-type simulated weapons do not, in general, resemble actual weapons. (Real laser beams are invisible under most circumstances, so such laser weapons as might exist are poor models for toys.) Nevertheless, the popular imagination clearly recognizes such weapons, and toy manufacturers have sought to produce simulated weapons which resemble them to supply the market. Early examples featured exotic body design and sometimes the use of electric lamps. Such devices did not, however, attempt to produce either real or imitative visible rays or beams. More recenly, Playmates carried a simulated weapon called Big Flash which does more to suggest the presence of a ray or beam during operation. A portion of the body of the toy consists of a plastic tube, shaped perhaps as a ray gun beam might be, which becomes lighted in conjunction with a sound effect when the device is operated. The effect achieved suggests the presence of a ray or beam extending into three dimensions. However, although the device emits light, the visible "beam" is part of the toy's body and does not extend beyond that body into space.